New Hyundai Kona will be known differently – Preview

Many models nowadays have a light section on the back that runs across the entire width. That is not the only design element that car manufacturers indiscriminately adopt from the Great Handbook Autodesign. What about the two-layered lighting at the front? Although layered lighting has also occurred in the past, we see more and more cars that have thin LED daytime running lights high in the nose with a floor below the actual headlights. Hyundai led the way in 2017. With the Kona, a bold crossover with such a front appeared that year. Meanwhile, the Sante Fe and the younger Bayon have a similar front end. Even BMW has been tempted to apply smeared lighting. With the new Kona planned for 2023, Hyundai does not intend to give up on design-technical brutality.

Next step

Based on the first spy photos of the second-generation Kona, we put our illustrator to work. The representation of the rear of this Kona is based on inspirations from a somewhat cloudy crystal ball, but the new Kona front can be filled in fairly concretely. Like its smaller brother Bayon and the Staria unknown to us, the Kona will probably get a thin strip of LED daytime running lights that runs across the entire width of the front. It separates the hood from the bumper work. No crossover without cross details, and so they will soon be available in abundance. The Hyundai design team does not just put a plastic trim around the wheel arches, but provides the new Kona with pronounced and relatively angular plastic panels that visually merge with the bumpers. Extravagant and undoubtedly not to everyone’s taste, but Hyundai has certainly not been accused of a lack of daring in recent years.

Hyundai Kona (Illustration: Larson)

Like almost every new model, the Kona grows with its generation, but in this case that growth is necessary. The current Kona is 4.21 meters long, the much younger but lower positioned Bayon is quite close with its 4.18 meters. We assume that the new Kona is more in the middle between that Bayon and its bigger brother, the 4.5 meter long Tucson.

Like its sister brand Kia, Hyundai supplies cars that have been developed entirely as an electric model, but also builds models that are available with (hybrid) combustion engines and with purely electric drive. For example, we know the Ioniq 5 from Hyundai, the first of a series of dedicated EVs, of which the Ioniq 6 and the Ioniq 7 are already on the way.

The current Kona is available as a mild hybrid with 1.0 T-GDI, as a hybrid 1.6 HEV and as a fully electric Kona Electric. It is certain that an all-electric variant of the new Kona will appear. The current Kona Electric is available with a 136-hp engine in combination with a 38-kWh battery. In addition, there is a version that delivers no less than 204 hp, coupled to a 64 kWh battery. The Kia Niro, the sister model that was completely renewed this year, already offers a good indication of what you can expect from the new Kona Electric.

Kona N

The new electric variant of the Kia Niro is just like the previous e-Niro with 64 kWh battery and 204 hp. We therefore also expect this powertrain in the new electric Kona. Whether the more modest EV hardware-equipped variant will return as well remains to be seen. The mild-hybrid powertrain may remain available in the new model. In addition, we dare to express the expectation that the 141-hp hybrid powertrain with 1.6 GDI will find its way back to the Kona. Whether Hyundai’s new crossover will also come on the market as a plug-in hybrid? Who will say. The youngest Kia Niro, like its predecessor, is available with a hybrid powertrain with plug, but this has never been delivered in the Kona. We would in any case not be surprised if Hyundai goes a step further in terms of powertrains than with the current Kona does. Because despite the extravagant appearance of the model, Hyundai hopes to appeal to the widest possible audience again.

The current Hyundai Kona

Hyundai has already sold more than 25,000 Kona’s in the Netherlands and the sales counter in Europe alone stands at about 400,000 units. Roughly forty percent of that is a Kona Electric or a hybrid. Finally, we are again counting on an ultra-fast Kona N, but it is highly questionable whether that sporty version will come to the Netherlands this time.